FREEDOM

Drug Dealer ‘White Boy Rick’ Granted Parole

Richard Wershe's sentence of life in prison for dealing cocaine is commuted.

"White Boy" Richard Wersche, serving a life sentence for dealing cocaine after he was a teenage FBI informant, was granted parole on Friday. Wersche has been in a Michigan prison for the past 29 years after he was convicted of a non-violent drug crime at age 17. Wershe was recruited by the FBI at age 14 as a paid confidential informant. Three years later he was arrested for possession of 17 pounds of cocaine, which carried a life sentence. (Wershe claims he was framed by crooked cops connected to Detroit's mayor and police chief.) The law sentencing people to life for possession of more than 650 grams of cocaine was struck down by the Michigan Supreme Court in 1992; Wersche is the state's last remaining juvenile non-violent drug offender behind bars. His release date has not yet been announced.